Colby Covington, Donald Trump and the chaos since winning UFC gold

Colby Covington, Donald Trump and the chaos since winning UFC gold

Colby Covington stood in the lobby of the White House, watching senator after senator walk by, when it hit him that the people passing through were there to conduct serious business.

As for the UFC interim welterweight champion, he was there just to make good on a guarantee he made after winning the belt in June, that he would take it to the Oval Office and place it on President Donald Trump’s desk.

Dressed in a sit and wearing a “Make America Great Again” cap, that’s precisely what Covington did last week with a little help from Trump friend Dana White, making for “an out-of-body experience.”

“When they walked me in to go see Trump, I’d seen him and was like, ‘Whoa, man. Is this really happening?’ I got the butterflies like I’ve never had before a fight,” Trump told MMAjunkie’s John Morgan. “But when I saw Trump, I was so nervous, man. And then I shook his hand. He’s huge, man. He’s a big guy. He was towering over me. And he was just so cool, man.

“He didn’t have to spend as much time as he did with us, and he legitimately gave us 30 minutes – just (expletive), told us some funny stories, he likes chicks, he likes wrestling, he likes MMA. And he was just telling us stories and just being a regular guy. He’s down to earth. He’s just a regular guy.”

Colby Covington and Donald Trump at the White House. (Twitter/@ColbyCovMMA)

“I’ve never been content or satisfied in my life,” Covington said. “When I make history, and I break the boundaries, I want to keep going higher and higher, and I want to keep pushing the limits of what people think is possible for me. My whole life and my whole UFC career, people have been doubting me. They tell me that I can’t do this.

“‘Oh, you’re not going to beat Demian Maia. Oh, you’re not going to beat RDA. Oh, you’re not going to beat Dong Hyun Kim.’ And I keep proving them all wrong. I still have a lot of things that I want to accomplish. I want to go down as the greatest fighter in the history of this sport, and I also want to make a lot of money. I want to make my bank account great again.”

Related

A big step toward making that happen could’ve been a highly anticipated title-unification bout with undisputed champ Tyron Woodley. The former friends and training partners have traded barbs on social media and through the press ever since Covington’s “filthy animal” remark about Brazilians instantly made him MMA’s biggest villain last October. That insult, and every single one since, was uttered to set up what seemed like an inevitable booking after Covington’s UFC 225 win over Rafael dos Anjos to claim the interim title.

White and UFC matchmakers wanted Woodley-Covington fight to headline UFC 228 next month in Dallas. The time table, however, was “unreasonable” for Covington. According to him, the UFC presented the opportunity just a few weeks after he beat dos Anjos and “six or seven weeks out” from the targeted UFC 228 date of Sept. 8.

Gallery

Colby Covington def. Rafael dos Anjos at UFC 225: Best photos

By that time, Covington said he already scheduled a surgery to correct a nasal issue. He also didn’t like the idea of rushing into a shortened camp. So, the UFC moved on, and now unbeaten British standout Darren Till is getting the shot at Woodley next month. The moment the fight begins, Covington will officially be stripped of his interim title.

While that doesn’t exactly sit well with him, Covington was more bothered by the UFC’s approach to begin with.

“Why are they trying to rush a camp?” he said. “This fight needs a build-up, man. It needs a 12-week promotional build-up. Let me get out there and show that I can promote, and I can market fights and sell fights. Because nobody’s selling fights like me. I know how to do that now. These other guys, they don’t know how to do that. I wanted the fight, but I didn’t want the date. There was no way I was going to be ready.”

“It’s only been up for me,” he said. “I don’t think about the negative in my life. I just think about the positives. They’re not stripping anything. I earned that belt. The only way you can take that belt is by beating me in the octagon, and there’s not a man alive that can beat me.

Covington has garnered little to no sympathy for his decision, including from Woodley himself, who said “Chaos” should be “embarrassed” that he turned down the fight. But Covington is clear that he still wants nothing more than to meet Woodley in the cage.

“I want this fight more than anything,” Covington said. “I want this fight more than I want to breathe. Literally, that’s how badly I want this fight.”

He continued, “It sucks. (The UFC is) looking at the short-term goals. Woodley-Till, that’s not going to do over 100,000 (pay-per-view) buys. I don’t know why they’re rushing to make that fight. Me and ‘Tyquil,’ that was going to be a big money fight. That was going to be a draw. That’s the fight I built. …

“It sucks, but it is what it is. Now, this time, I’m just hoping Tyron doesn’t (expletive) this up. That’s all I can say to him, is Tyron, don’t (expletive) this up. I built this. You didn’t build this.”

For more on the upcoming UFC schedule, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.